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Justice & Human Rights

The rule of law presents a path for nations to create a just and humane world. Our resources on human rights examine international systems of justice developed in response to mass violence, past and present. These emcompass struggles around racism, religious intolerance, national origin, gender and sexuality, and sexual expression.

The horrors of World War II, the new and frightening power of the atomic bomb, and the Nazi genocide of Jews and of others deemed unworthy to live shocked the consciences of people all over the world in 1945. This capacity and desire to destroy whole populations of humanity prompted First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to warn that "In the end...we are 'One World' and that which injures any one of us, injures all of us."

Welcome to Day 3. Today we’ll focus on reasons human rights was controversial in the post-war United States and why “civil” rights, instead, became the focus. This session will also model a literacy strategy known as close read activity.

Welcome to Day 4. The end of the first meeting of the Human Rights Commission in February of 1947 marked the drafting of the document first referred to as the International Bill of Rights, later known as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Welcome to Day 5, our final session of the week. Today we’ll focus on the legacies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that was not given the rule of law over the laws of individual sovereign states but nonetheless holds a great deal of influence over human rights legislation and promotion since its inception.